Tens of Thousands of Aussie Students Protest Over Climate Action

We’ll close our live coverage of the School Strike for Climate Action here. Thanks for joining us.

Tens of thousands of students participated in demonstrations in major cities and regional centres across the country, all to call on the government to take action on climate change.

Roads in Sydney’s CBD have been closed and buses re-routed as an unexpectedly large crowd of students packed Town Hall square for the School Strike for Climate protest.

Climate change is not just an environmental crisis, it’s a humanitarian crisis, and it needs to be treated as such,” student activist Danielle, 15, told the crowd.

In Melbourne, Spring St and Collins St have been closed by the massive throngs of protesters.

Students were asked to phone Bill Shorten’s office to leave a message for the opposition leader about the protest.

Police had to intervene as several protesters scaled high-rise buildings in the midst of the demonstration.

In Adelaide, students packed the stairs of South Australian Parliament for the protest.

Schoolkids have also protested in large crowds in Canberra, Brisbane, Newcastle, Coffs Harbour, Wollongong, Bendigo and Geelong.

Demonstrations are yet to begin in Perth.

School student rallies around the country have begun in earnest to protest government inaction on climate change.

Thousands of students gathered outside Sydney’s Town Hall bearing placards to draw attention to the issue of global warming.

In Melbourne, schoolkids rallied outside the Old Treasury.

Students lined the stairs of South Australian Parliament in Adelaide.

Protests are yet to begin in Brisbane and Perth.

While Australian students striking against climate change have copped flak from senior ministers, Kiwi pupils marching on parliament have received a promise from their government.

Thousands of students across New Zealand on Friday joined peers in Australia and across the world in skipping class to call for greater government action on climate change.

Thank you for taking a stand … Today is your day,” an impassioned Climate Change Minister James Shaw – sporting a black eye after being assaulted in public a day earlier – told the crowd assembled on the parliamentary lawn in Wellington.

It is time for the talking to stop. It is time for the action to start he added, pledging the government would pass long-awaited carbon emission reduction legislation this year.

He received a rockstar welcome from the chanting audience of thousands that earlier flooded streets in the city and were joined in similar events nationwide.

New Zealand last year banned future offshore oil exploration in the country, but protest organisers say no political party is yet doing enough to halt climate change.

We are as much a part of this society as every other age group … I cannot vote and for me, right now, this is my vote,” local high school student Oli Morphew 14, told the rally.

How are we supposed to be the future if we are not being given a future to have? If the people who should be making the future for us are too busy making the present for themselves.

While stopping short of telling students to break the rules by skipping class to strike, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern this week said youth needed to be heard and taken seriously.

It’s literally their future,” she said on Friday.

“Please keep bringing as many people as you can with you, because we simply won’t achieve our goals alone.”

The strike also received backing from hundreds of academics, teachers and unions but, like in Australia and Britain, conservative politicians and commentators have been less than keen on students missing a day of school for the event.

Shaw was attacked while walking to work on Thursday by a man reportedly shouting political slogans.

One of the first demonstrations in Australia for climate action today has been held in the NSW town of Goulburn.

More than 80 people showed up outside the office of Energy Minister Angus Taylor, who represents the area in parliament.

The protest is not affiliated with the student strike, but was instead by local community activists The Goulburn Group.

We wanted to show the students here in our region and across Australia that we have your back said group president Mhairi Fraser.

The time for talk and platitudes is over and the students know that unless drastic action to reduce emissions is taken it will be their lives on the line as the world heats up.

Ahead of the planned strikes Swedish teen activist and strike founder Greta Thunberg, who has become a prominent voice in campaigns against climate change, has overnight been nominated by three Norwegian politicians for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Thunberg, 16, has encouraged students to skip school to join protests demanding faster action on climate change, a movement that has spread beyond Sweden to other European nations.

Any national politician can nominate somebody for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Senior cabinet minister Christopher Pyne has criticised the move by students to strike, saying it will damage their education.

Usually strikes are when employees withdraw their labour from an employee so I’m not sure why the students are withdrawing themselves from school. It only damages their education Mr Pyne told Today.

Labor frontbencher Joel Fitzgibbon defended student activism, saying children should be encouraged to express their opinions.

I don’t think any student is going to miss out on their career because they missed a few hours of school today he said.

The former Liberal MP JUlia Banks, who is running as an independent in Flinders in the upcoming Federal Election has tweeted her support for students.

Tens of thousands of Australian students are expected to strike today over inaction on climate change.

Today’s move comes months after students first skipped school over climate action, a move condemned by the prime minister.

This time students are taking part in a day of global action with more than 90 countries participating.

The students have three demands: stop the Adani coal mine in central Queensland, no new coal or gas, and 100 per cent renewables by 2030.